Clinician Communication and Patient Safety by Prof. Milisa Manojlovich

by - January 23, 2022

        In this podcast, Pro. Manojlovich talked about clinician communication and patient safety. She talked about what is communication, what affects the communication, the different communication errors, and how to effectively communicate in the healthcare setting. Communication is an exchange of messages between the sender and the receiver. It is to share or to make a comment about the understanding of a certain situation. However, not all messages are being transferred properly due to environmental factors. Sometimes, the place of communication is so noisy that you lose the ability to understand the words and the meaning that is being conveyed. There are many interruptions that can affect the ability to cognitively focus on the message which can lead to forgetting the topic that you are about to say. Being in a too public place can affect in a way that other people may hear the things that they should not hear. Lastly, communicating in a too private place may result in not having all the people needed in the conversation. Pro. Manojlovich mentioned different communication errors that they gathered from the incident reports that they have collected for their research. Some of the communication errors that she stated are errors of content when the information in the message is inaccurate, missing, or unclear, error of purpose is when the set goals are not measurable leading to being unresolved, communication absence is when there are no answer or no response from the receiver, and error of inappropriate communication is when the manner of communication is not pleasing enough to be heard. Pro. Manojlovich also gave a strategy in order to be able to effectively communicate and that is to build a good relationship with your co-workers. Having a good relationship can help you and the receiver to be able to communicate properly because you have the shared understanding that is vital in the healthcare setting. In building a good relationship, the sender and the receiver should share goals, share knowledge, and have mutual respect. Telling is different from sharing and sharing is the most appropriate thing to do because you will be able to help one another in helping your client achieve optimum health. When sharing a goal, make sure that you share the plan and its rationale so they would know the reason behind your decision. Next, share your knowledge to be able to arrive at a consensus decision for the benefit of the client. Lastly, mutually respect one another by being empathetic so you would know how to be like in their situation. 

        What I learned in this podcast is that all healthcare professionals should be able to communicate properly in order to understand what is really happening to their clients and be able to do what is the best for them. In communicating, we not only communicate for the benefit of the clients but we also communicate to help our co-nurses gain learning from our personal experiences. I also learned that communication tools such as SBAR is not the technique that will help us to communicate properly, but that is to build a good relationship with our co-workers. If we are able to establish a good rapport with them, we will be able to learn and grow together that will be very helpful in the working environment. In addition, I felt sad upon hearing that poor communication is one of the causes of errors, increased length of stay, re-admission, and death in healthcare. That is why we should communicate effectively in order to avoid communication errors that may affect the client’s health. 

        As a soon to be registered nurse, I need to build a good relationship with my co-workers so that I would be able to communicate with them properly. I need to practice my communicating skills so that there will be clarity on the messages that I will convey. My non-verbal actions should be always appropriate on my verbal cues because a non-verbal communication may take away the meaning of what I will say that may result in a difficulty to get a shared understanding. Nurses are known to give vague messages and I will not follow it. I will not give a message that only contains hints and just hope that they understand what I am talking about because it may confuse my co-workers. If there will be a time that I cannot understand what they are saying to me, I will ask nicely for clarification because sometimes there is more to the message that they are conveying and maybe that my interpretation is different from theirs. These are the actions that I should practice and learn so that I would be able to communicate effectively for the health of my future clients and also for my well-being.

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